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what do you think about the UPR recommendations to the United Arab Emirates?

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The voting for this poll has ended on: August 2, 2018

The ICJHR calls Sorbonne University for solidarity with Dr. Nasser Ben Ghaith

Geneva, 20 April 2018

The International Center for Justice and Human Rights sent a letter to the President of the Sorbonne University in Paris, Pr. Jean Chambaz, requesting the solidarity of the university presidency and teaching staff with Dr. Nasser Ben Ghaith as a former professor at the Sorbonne branch in Abu Dhabi.

The ICJHR has called on the Sorbonne to take urgent action to release Dr. Ben Ghaith, an academic and an Emirati economist who was a professor at the Sorbonne branch in Abu Dhabi from 2008 to 2011. ICJHR called on the President of the Sorbonne University and faculty members to intervene with the authorities of the United Arab Emirates to immediately release Dr. Nasser bin Ghaith as a member of the teaching staff of this university and is known for supporting and promoting human rights values.

As a reminder, Dr. Ben Ghaith was arrested by security forces in the United Arab Emirates on 18 August 2015 and was unfairly sentenced by the Federal Court of Appeal to 10 years' imprisonment on March 29, 2017 for the tweets he published on his personal account in which he condemned human rights violations in Egypt. The UAE authorities considered these tweets as undermining the good relations with the Egyptian state via the Internet "and to provoke sedition, hatred, racism, sectarianism and damage to national unity and social peace."

In response to this unfair trial, Dr. Nasser bin Ghaith announced his entry into a hunger strike on April 2, 2017 and sent a public opinion statement from Al-Razeen Prison confirming his innocence and that his trial was unfair trial. Instead of taking these considerations into account, the administration of Al-Razeen Prison decided to ban visits and contacts with Dr. Ben Ghaith to punish him. His place of detention was unknown for more than 6 months.

On February 25, 2018, Dr. Ben Ghaith announced his decision to begin a second hunger strike to protest the ill-treatment. Since that decision, the prison authorities have banned visits and all communications between him and his family. The last visit took place on March 7, 2018. He was tired and his condition deteriorated due to hypoglycemia and high blood pressure.

The International Center for Justice and Human Rights believes that it is necessary to ask the Sorbonne's academic body to support Dr. Nasser Ben Ghaith because of the gravity of his situation, especially after his unfair trial, which sentenced him to 10 years in prison and a second hunger strike.